Qvale, nearing 90, sees life after crash for U.S. industry

The troubles roiling Detroit's automakers are familiar to Kjell Qvale, the legendary importer and dealer in San Francisco. Qvale, who turns 90 on July 17, has seen this movie before. For instance, many of the British automakers that Kjell Qvale (shel kah-VAH'-lee) depended on for sports and luxury cars collapsed in the 1970s.

8th L'Argus Design Competition announced

From 1 June 2009, design students will be invited to take part in the eighth annual L'Argus European Design Competition, which this year takes as its theme 'Less is More: Traveling in the Era of Simplicity'. Questioning students on the concepts of mobility and the future of automobile design, this contest - organized by French magazine L'Argus de L'Automobile - will run until 11 December 2009 and culminate in an awards ceremony on 20 January 2010. The competition is open to students attending design colleges within the European Union and Switzerland, including non-automotive courses covering disciplines such as industrial design, fine arts and architecture.

College Exhibition: RCA/GM - Fast Forward 2049

First year students at the Royal College of Art recently held an exhibition at the London Transport Museum commemorating the 40th anniversary of the school's vehicle design course. Sponsored by GM's Opel/Vauxhall division, 19 students responded to a brief that called for them to ‘Fast Forward into the Future'. Divided into three groups - Inside Out, Urban Flow and Automark - the students devised their own notions of vehicles for the year 2049, and in some cases entirely reinvented Opel brand values and aesthetics.